Just when you think this story's going to die a quiet death -- OK, maybe not so much -- along comes the Observer with some choice articles to fan the flames some more. Nan Talese asserts that no, her imprint really did buy a memoir, even if James Frey said differently on Larry King, while Tom Scocca's blistering attack of Frey's fake memoir goes a little out of control (WMDs?) but footnoting the opening paragraph of MY FRIEND LEONARD was most excellent:

"On my first day in jail*, a three hundred pound man** named Porterhouse*** hit me in the back of the head**** with a metal tray*****."

*The author never went to jail.

**Weight is an estimate; also the author, not being in jail, never met such a person.

***Not his real name; also the author never met such a person.

****Because the author's head was not present in jail, such a blow did not actually land.

***** The composition of the tray is a guess, because the author did not actually get hit by it, because the author was never in jail.

And just in case the point wasn't brought home, Frey never went to jail.

UPDATE: And just in case you were wondering, The Book Standard passes along last week's sales figures, as teased by Bookscan: 23,000 fewer copies of Pieces than the previous week, 4,000 fewer of Leonard. JT LeRoy, on the other hand, actually saw his/her sales increase, presumably because lots of people were just hearing about him/her for the first time last week.